It is well known in motor vehicles to have a hood which carries a striker. It is also well known to have a latch assembly mounted to the vehicle for latching and unlatching the hood. A conventional latch assembly includes a housing having a throat for receiving the striker. Typically, a forkbolt lever is pivotally mounted to the housing for movement between a latched position for capturing the striker in the housing throat to latch the hood and an unlatched position for releasing the striker to unlatch the hood. The latch assembly also typically includes a detent lever for selectively engaging the forkbolt lever in the latched position. A cable is attached to the detent lever and is robted to a hood release handle mounted adjacent a vehicle driver. The driver pulls the handle which pulls the cable causing the detent lever to disengage from the forkbolt lever to release the striker and unlatch the panel.
It is becoming increasingly common in a global economy to produce vehicles having a left-drive version and a right-drive version. A conventional latch assembly can be made in a left-hand version and a right-hand version by manufacturing and assembly of a different housing, forkbolt lever and detent lever. The prior art also recognizes that a housing having a central throat may be used with a left-drive or right-drive vehicle. However, redundant manufacturing operations must be performed to provide duplicate left-hand and right-hand mounting holes on the housing for pivot pins to support the forkbolt lever and detent lever. In addition, a different forkbolt lever and detent lever are typically manufactured and assembled to provide a left-hand or a right-hand version of the latch assembly. The requirement of different components and different or redundant manufacturing and assembly operations adds time and cost to producing latch assemblies.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide an improved latch assembly which utilizes the same housing, pivot pins, detent lever, and forkbolt lever, and which may be alternately assembled for releasing the striker and unlatching the hood either by pulling a cable on a left side of the vehicle for a left-hand version or by pulling a cable on a right side of the vehicle for a right-hand version.